All quiet on the Western front.
January 17, 2011
So, it’s been awhile. It’s a brand new year, even. What’s stirring for Jen and Dustin, and the company-that-almost-was, Axiom Art&Dance?
In late summer/early fall, we told the owner of the building in no uncertain terms that if he was determined to keep us in this lease, we could pay him rent until our income-less bank account ran out and then we would promptly default. He told us that he understood our situation, but still, he couldn’t just let us leave. Shame on us for getting ourselves into this mess, and besides, it’s bad business on his part. He told us he wanted to keep trying to find someone to take over our (single year left on the) lease. He told us he would grant us a small boon: we could stop paying rent in the meantime. This was upwards of five months ago. No rent paid, but no lease dissolved either. I wish I was kidding when I say that December rolled over into January, and we’re actually still waiting for this individual to tell us whether we’ve been absolved or whether we owe him $8500 + in back rent.
In what was admittedly not the most mature move, we then seized fall as an opportunity to rent out the space for private events so we could afford to pay our bills. We hosted two or three gatherings, but I could never shake the feeling that they were just less lavish, less-awesome parties than ones we could have planned and executed ourselves. I also got pretty worn down continually explaining to attendees why I had access to this seemly finished space, what the business was supposed to be about, and why we weren’t open legitimately. Slowly, we quit paying the bills altogether, oddly not from lack of funds, but due to extraordinary amounts of apathy.
Speaking of extraordinary amounts of apathy, you can thank said apathy for this blog post. Long ago, I used to self-censor a lot of of the issues we were having, in the off chance a certain person with a lease in his control stumbled over this blog. Hey, I know that nothing on the Internet is private. But magically here I am, back and posting, party photos restored from “private” mode, and a reasonably straightforward account of what has occurred since May.
a Chris Van Allsburg classic. the balding man represents me, and the lump under the rug represents all things warehouse. obviously.
Well, all that’s depressing, and it’s winter again, so that’s bringdown city, too. But wait! Here’s the uplifting, self-reflective part. “Learning moment” section of my résumé aside… I’ve found myself dipping into this strange, angsty well of adolescent activities. In the backdraft of business maturity and organization, I’ve rekindled my passion for decorating and/or exploring things that aren’t mine. And unlike my actual West-O adolescence, during which I was way too good of a kid to ever do anything but plot these things, I now have the monetary, logistical, and moral(!) resources to do it right (ok, “differently” not “better”). I won’t lie, it’s been personally satisfying. I also won’t go into details. I still believe anyone that wants to know anything on the Internet should have to social-network this stuff together themselves. But I will say this: watch out, Omaha: the internet is leaking.
